Sunday, 2nd day of May marked the first official match of the season for Belfast Lough Angling and Conservation Club, that has been established in late 2020.
Twenty some keen members have met at Pan's Rock Car park in Ballycastle just shortly after 10am, and after exchanging a few words with new colleagues and drawing our pegs, we proceeded to our designated spots.
Conditions were quite mild with winds up to 8mph, temperature up to 13 degrees Celsius and not much surf. We had some sun, some clouds and rain, however it didn't spoil the fun we all had.
After setting up the pegs, our lines touched the water at 11am. Having reading recent reports from this mark and hearing rather negative news prior to the match, I was ready for a big fat blank which I thought was inevitable. Luckily, just after casting my rig a good distance out, the tip of my rod indicated first bite. Shortly after I have landed my first fish of the day, that was a 18cm flounder that gave me 4 points and hopes for more and better fish.
Second cast brought me a double shot of flounders measuring 26 and 15cm and earning me 18 points! I was well pleased with it.
Things went quiet for a while but which was a great opportunity for me to "read" the water more carefully and search for gullies and sand bars.
Rigs and baits.
From my previous experience at Ballycastle beach, it was kind of difficult for me to decide what rig would be the "deadliest" one at this particular spot. It was my second ever shore angling match, and as majority of you know, rigs used for pleasure fishing are slightly different than the ones we use at the matches. Usually, the hooks are much smaller than standard size 1/0 and the lines are thinner. At the end, I went for a standard "Two up and one down" rig with 50lbs rig body, size 6 Aberdeen hooks and 60cm fine fluorocarbon snoods with UV pink and green silicone attractor beads that also worked as bait stoppers.
As usual, my bait selection consisted of freshly dug blow lugworm, ragworm, mackerel, sandeels and maddies, however vast majority of my fish fell for lugworm tipped off with a small piece of mackerel, apart from one 18cm turbot that took a whole small sandeel bait.
Just before scheduled end of the match at 4pm I've decided to add up my points and fill in the match card. Total of 9 fish, small flounders and turbots measuring between 13 and 26cm gave me 71points and 10th place. Not the greatest result but at the same time I was happy with what I achieved (thankfully, I hadn't blanked). At 4pm all the participants proceeded back to the car park to pack up out gear, have a friendly chat with other members and most importantly, find out who the winner was!
There were four prize categories - longest round fish, longest flatfish, 2nd and 1st place.
The longest flatfish of the match was a 32cm turbot, longest round fish (and the only one caught) - 12cm weever, the 2nd place winner had 18 fish and 120 points and finally, the winner finished with 19 fish and 142 points! They did it again. These two guys have had the same results (1st and 2nd places) at the practice match that was held last month. Very well done!!!
While most of the participants went home to eat their tasty Sunday dinners, a small group of us took a slight detour to one of the North Coast harbours in search of micro species and conger eels. Sadly, after a few hours spent there, none of us managed to catch an eel, however I managed to tick another two species off my Species hunt list - a beautiful tompot blenny and small ballan wrasse, both caught with a mini fish set up - a size 12 hook with a small piece of ragworm, 6lbs monofilament line and a 1/4oz lead weight.
It was a truly amazing day and night spent with a great crowd bunch of people, including the man behind @masterbaits.ie, Cillian who I had a great pleasure to meet for the first time! And surely, not the last. Watch this space for more exciting content in the coming months! With the water temperatures rising significantly, we are hoping for some absolutely fantastic catches from the shore, as well as boats!
Until the next time...
Also a special mention to Michael from Belfast Lough Angling and Conservation Club for organising such an amazing day. Be sure to check them out and like on Facebook.
Words by our member Jack of Ni Fishing Adventures.
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